His First Job
by amandajbruce
Summary: In which Jackson is fired and Oliver takes over at Rico's.


A/N: The part in "We Are Family, Now Get Me Some Water" where Lilly aims a bottle of water at Oliver's head has always been one of my favorite moments. She never pays for the water though, so I guess it's a good thing she threw it back to him. Haha. When I thought about that, I decided to write this. It's shorter than what I've been doing lately, but there wasn't really anything else to say, at least, not in my mind.

His First Job

Rico's Surf Shack was almost completely deserted when Lilly slid on to a stool at the counter. She sniffed the air in surprise. Was that lemon? As in, the Shack was now lemony fresh? Someone had actually cleaned the counter top. It almost sparkled in the sunlight. Almost because, well, the counter top was just too old and worn to really sparkle anymore. And all of the napkin dispensers were full. The metal even looked polished. Those scratches on the one container that Todd had tried to balance on his nose were hardly even noticeable. There were even bottles of ketchup and mustard. She picked one up to test its weight. It was full. Actual ketchup and mustard. Rico always told her they were out.

"Hey," she called to the back of the head of the person behind the counter, "could I get an order of nachos?" The head looked vaguely familiar.

"Sure."

Oliver turned around to face her. Wait a minute, Oliver? Jackson had just been fired, and Oliver had already been hired?

"What are you doing here? You're not old enough to work here!"

"Yeah, and Rico's not old enough to run a business either." Oliver leaned on the counter to talk to her. "Since Miley got Jackson fired, Rico needed to cover his shift, and he's paying me cash. If I do a good job, he said I can stay on."

He nodded to a blond girl who walked up, asking for a bottle of water. Quickly pulling a bottle from the cooler under the soda fountain, he winked at the pretty girl. She dropped her cash on the counter and haughtily flipped her hair over her shoulder before walking away. Lilly struggled not to laugh.

Another girl casually walked up behind her, ordering a hot dog. Her eyes widened when Oliver tripped on his way back to the counter and the hotdog shot out of his hands and into the sand.

"I'll just go get you a new one," he mumbled, starting all over again.

When she handed him a few dollars, her eyes were wide and she snatched her hand back quickly before turning and practically running down the beach. What did she think he was going to do? Throw the dirty one at her? Weird.

"Wow." Lilly gave a little whistle. "Looks like the girls like you even less than Jackson." Oliver glared at her and turned to clean up his mess. "What about my nachos?" Lilly reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry." Oliver poured some nachos from a bag into a paper container and splashed some cheese from the dispenser on to the top. Really, it oozed more than splashed. Lilly was unsure as to whether it was even safe to eat. When he pushed the container in front of her, he held his hand out for the money.

"Really?" Lilly asked him flatly.

Oliver withdrew his hand, saying out of the corner of his mouth, "just don't tell anybody."

"Do you think I could get a little bit more cheese?" Lilly smiled sweetly.

"Really?" Oliver asked, imitating her earlier tone.

"Nah. Just figured it was worth a shot."

"That's what I thought."

They laughed as another customer walked up to the Shack.

"Yo. My hotdog's cold." The guy across the counter had a serious tan, like he spent every waking moment absorbing the sun's rays, and was about twice Oliver's size, and he did not look happy.

"Well, I did sell you the hotdog fifteen minutes ago," Oliver carefully explained once he saw that almost the entire meat product was still encased in the bun clutched in the guys massive hand. "You know, it gets cold if you don't eat it."

Apparently, he disagreed with Oliver because he attempted to take a threatening step toward the smaller boy, but a stool stood in his way. He stepped around it and tried to lean over the counter top.

"Hey," Lilly interrupted as Oliver began to cower back by the cheese dispenser, "you can have my nachos! They're fresh. Haven't even breathed on them." She tentatively pushed the container along the counter, giving him a small smile. They guy angrily scooped up the container and stalked away.

"Thanks." Oliver was back to his spot at the counter directly in front of her.

"No prob."

"You do know I'm not giving you more nachos, right?"

"I kinda figured." She shrugged as though she had never really wanted them anyway.

It was with this memory of saving Oliver's life from the surfer on steroids at the forefront of her mind that Lilly threw two bottles of water at him two days later.

She did not really care that he was getting more attention. She especially did not care that this attention was coming to Oliver in the form of teenage girls hanging around the Shack when it was his shift. She also did not care that he looked ridiculous in the hat and sunglasses. Nope. Not one bit. It was that he was treating her like she was one of those mindless bikini clad girls who giggled over his juggling skills and cheesy lines. Never mind that she had laughed at most of his jokes when he tried them out on her. And never mind that she had actually been a little impressed with his juggling skills in the past. He was different, not the Oliver she was used to.

So, to say she was relieved when Miley was finally able to work out a deal with Rico so Jackson could get his job back would be an understatement. It was only his first job, so she was sure he would get over it. She knew Oliver was disappointed though when they had been sitting watching Jackson attempt to juggle for ten minutes. He was almost as uncoordinated as Miley. It was amazing, really. She decided to try the magic words.

"Hey Oliver, want to go surfing?"

He raced her to the rental stand and all was right in her world.


End file.
